Book1910
Farm Blacksmithing
James M. Drew
Teaches forge work through the specific jobs a farm actually needs done — tool repair, horseshoeing, wagon ironwork — rather than as a general course in smithing technique.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Metalwork & Fabrication
Shaping metal by heat and force.
10 topics · 19 curated works
Topics
Reading in Metalwork & Fabrication
19A way in
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No prior grounding assumed.
Farm Blacksmithing
James M. Drew · 1910
Teaches forge work through the specific jobs a farm actually needs done — tool repair, horseshoeing, wagon ironwork — rather than as a general course…
+2 more at this level
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
The Practical Brass and Iron Founder's Guide
James Larkin · 1853
Treats mould-making and metal alloying as the two variables a founder actually controls, and argues that most casting defects trace back to one or…
+9 more at this level
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Primary sources and full treatments.
The Complete Practical Machinist
Joshua Rose · 1876
Argues that lathe and vise work rest on a shared logic of measurement and tool angle, and that a machinist who grasps this logic can set up any new…
+5 more at this level
12 of 19 works
Book1917
Elementary Forge Practice
Robert H. Harcourt
Builds forging skill through a fixed sequence of graded exercises for vocational schools, on the claim that drawing, bending and upsetting are the few operations every other forging job combines.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Video2020
How was it made? Lost-wax bronze casting
Victoria and Albert Museum
Follows a bronze through the complete lost-wax sequence and shows why the process is inherently destructive: the wax original and the mould are both lost to produce a single cast.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book1853
The Practical Brass and Iron Founder's Guide
James Larkin
Treats mould-making and metal alloying as the two variables a founder actually controls, and argues that most casting defects trace back to one or the other rather than to the pour itself.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1888
The Sheet-Metal Worker's Guide
W. J. E. Crane
Reduces sheet-metal fabrication to geometrical pattern development, arguing that any shape in tin, zinc or copper can be flattened into a cutting pattern by consistent projection.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1889
Practical Blacksmithing
M. T. Richardson (ed.)
Collects working smiths' own accounts of their jobs on the premise that trade knowledge lives in named solutions to real commissions, not in abstracted general rules.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1889
Electro-Plating and Electro-Refining of Metals
Alexander Watt
Explains metal finishing by electrodeposition as a controllable chemical process, arguing that plating quality depends on bath composition and current density rather than operator skill alone.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1911
American Blacksmithing, Toolsmiths' and Steelworkers' Manual
John Gustaf Holmstrom & Henry Holford
Works systematically through forge fire, tool steel and hand-forging technique as a single self-taught course, aimed at a smith with no shop to apprentice in.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1916
English and American Tool Builders
Joseph Wickham Roe
Traces the machine-tool industry to a handful of named mechanics, arguing that interchangeable manufacturing grew out of specific machinists' innovations rather than abstract economic forces.
about 6.5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1916
Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting
Harold P. Manly
Explains the oxy-acetylene flame itself, arguing that consistent welds come from reading the flame's chemistry rather than from memorising joint recipes.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1922
The Working of Steel: Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel
Fred H. Colvin & Kristian A. Juthe
Explains carburizing and quenching as a controllable surface-chemistry process, letting a smith give a soft core its hard, wear-resistant skin on purpose rather than by accident.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Report1967
TM 9-237: Welding Theory and Application
United States Department of the Army
Sets out arc, gas and resistance welding as applications of a single theory of heat and metallurgy, so a welder trained on the principles can move between processes rather than memorising each separately.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
In order written
1853 – 2020- 1853The Practical Brass and Iron Founder's GuideJames Larkin
- 1876The Complete Practical MachinistJoshua Rose
- 1888The Sheet-Metal Worker's GuideW. J. E. Crane
- 1889Practical BlacksmithingM. T. Richardson (ed.)
- 1889Electro-Plating and Electro-Refining of MetalsAlexander Watt
- 1908American Machinists' Handbook and Dictionary of Shop TermsFred H. Colvin & Frank A. Stanley
- 1909Foundry Practice: A Treatise on Molding and Casting in Their Various DetailsJames Murray Tate & Melvin Oscar Stone
- 1910Farm BlacksmithingJames M. Drew
- 1911American Blacksmithing, Toolsmiths' and Steelworkers' ManualJohn Gustaf Holmstrom & Henry Holford
- 1913Practical Sheet and Plate Metal WorkEvan A. Atkins
- 1916English and American Tool BuildersJoseph Wickham Roe
- 1916Oxy-Acetylene Welding and CuttingHarold P. Manly
- 1917Elementary Forge PracticeRobert H. Harcourt
- 1922The Working of Steel: Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy SteelFred H. Colvin & Kristian A. Juthe
- 1967TM 9-237: Welding Theory and ApplicationUnited States Department of the Army
- 1996Steelworker, Volume 1: NAVEDTRA 14250United States Navy
- 2020How was it made? Lost-wax bronze castingVictoria and Albert Museum